Tips from a golf pro

Often the importance of proper alignment gets overlooked by the regular golfer. Bad shots show up and they start tweaking their swings, but a lot of times these poor shots are caused by bad alignment.

Here are a few examples of what poor alignment can cause: If your shoulders are aiming left of your target, you will have the tendency to fade or slice the ball. If your club face is aiming right of your target line, it will cause you to slice the ball. And if it's aiming left of the target, you will have the tendency of hooking the ball.

Proper alignment consists of the club face aiming straight at the target and your feet, hips and shoulders parallel to the club face and to the target line. Pay close attention, you do not want your feet, hips and shoulders aiming at the target. You want them to be just left of it, to form railroad tracks.

To improve your alignment, you may want change your pre-shot routine. Start by standing behind the ball on a straight line to your target, then pick something distinctive (for example a blade of grass or a leaf) a few feet away from the ball in the target line as an intermediate target. Then just set up to the ball and aim the club face to the chosen intermediate target, visualize a line between the club and the intermediate target and try to set up your body parallel to that line.

Also, when you are at the range, you can set a club down on the ground between the ball and your feet, aiming a couple of feet left of the target and set your body parallel to it. Just make sure that you do not set it next to the ball, because you could hit it while swinging.

So next time you are not hitting the ball well make sure that you check your alignment before you start making swing changes.

Santiago Cavanagh is the director of golf at Flagler College. His tips column is published each Sunday.